News round up: Paedophiles to be offered chemical castration

Convicted paedophiles are being offered chemical castration for the first time in the UK to help manage their sexual behaviour.The initiative has been backed by the government after research showed that the use of drugs can reduce the risk of further offending.

The programme involves jailed sex offenders volunteering to take medication to reduce their testosterone levels to those of pre-pubescent boys. The result if similar to the effects of castration.

Patients at risk of going blind will have their sight saved under a unique deal announced by the NHS drugs rationing watchdog. For the first time a drugs company will pay to top up patients’ treatment where the level of care paid for by the Health Service is not enough.

In a decision that marks a climbdown for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), the first 14 injections of the sight-saving drug Lucentis will be paid for by the NHS.

A stand-off between the local government ombudsman and Trafford council in Manchester is exposing the limits of the ombudsman’s powers and prompting calls for rulings to be made enforceable.

Trafford is refusing to pay the £100,000 compensation recommended by the ombudsman for the family of Carly Wright, a young woman with profound disabilities whose needs were neglected by the council when she was due to transfer from children’s services to those for adults. Her parents, Wilma and Peter Wright, have started an e-petition on the 10 Downing Street website, urging that all such rulings be made binding by law.

According to a “senior government source”, that ubiquitous character with the ear of journalists and a convenient lack of fingerprints, care services minister Ivan Lewis needs to shut his trap. “If he can’t concentrate on his day job,” the source apparently told lobby reporters last week, “he’ll soon find himself without one.”

Why does this matter? It matters because: a) Lewis’s role is of critical importance, way beyond the absurdly low status of his job title as undersecretary of state; and b) as it happens, and by common consent, he is rather good at it.

Two-thirds of adults (67%) are worried about the future cost of care and accommodation for themselves or elderly relatives, according to new research by three leading care and older people’s charities.

Help the Aged, Counsel & Care and the Elderly Accommodation Counsel say cost of care could be the biggest financial burden many people will ever face.

Residential care fees have increased by 51.5% in the past five years, and a recent survey by the Saga Group predicted the annual cost of full-time care in the UK could hit £60,000 by 2038. In response, the coalition is launching a service to provide a single source of information on care, housing and funding.

Supersize prisons will not solve jail crisis, watchdog warns government

Government plans to build three “Titan” prisons, each containing 2,500 inmates, have been strongly criticised by jail watchdogs and penal reform groups.

The National Council of Independent Monitoring Boards, made up of official “prison visitors” to Britain’s jails, has warned justice ministers that managing the supersize jails will cause “major staff problems”. The council says money would be better spent on community sanctions and reducing crime.

Overweight people will today be told there are “no excuses” for being obese as the Conservative party launches a new “responsibility” deal on public health.

The shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley, will use a speech to the thinktank Reform, entitled No Excuses, No Nannying, to set out proposals on how the government and business can work together to address problems caused by poor diet, alcohol abuse and lack of exercise.

Many parents are missing out on the best daycare for their children because only 3% of providers are judged to be outstanding and 40% rate just satisfactory or worse, according to a three-year study by inspectors at Ofsted.

The most serious complaints made in 90,000 inspections covered by the report included adults looking after too many children or not being properly vetted, and nurseries with no first aid kits.

Only one in 5,000 children who are caught carrying knives are locked up for their crime, figures out today show. Of the 1,164 ten to 15-year-olds caught with a knife last year only 30 ended up in prison.

The data, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, show that three children a day were caught carrying a knife in England and Wales in the year up to April. Around half received a caution, the other 600 were prosecuted and 30 of those were sentenced to prison.

However, even those caught with a knife is a small percentage of teenagers who admit to carrying one. In a Government survey 15,000 children admitted to carrying a knife over the past year.